Nike unveils new Kobe Bryant shoe (Photo)

Nike showed off the new design for a Kobe Bryant signature shoe that will be officially launched Tuesday, April 14th.

Earlier in January this year, Nike unveiled the “Kobe X,” Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant’s tenth signature shoe. The resulting ad campaign posed Kobe holding his new shoe as though it channeled his chakra energy.

Nike unveils the Kobe X. Credit: Nike /

For some reason, I can hear a didgeridoo in the back of my head.

Well, now the shoe company has released a second shoe in the “Kobe X” line, this time the “Nikelab Kobe X Elite Low HTM.” The HTM Flyknit series utilizes knit fabrics rather than artificial fibers to construct the shoe. Nikelab is hopefully not the name of a sweatshop.

Nike unveils the Nikelab Kobe X Elite Low HTM. Credit: Nike /

From Nike News:

"For the second consecutive year, Bryant’s signature shoe blends Nike Basketball’s newest performance technologies with a refined, HTM aesthetic. The new low-profile silhouette is available in three colorways, each of which delivers premium detailing.The KOBE X Elite Low HTM’s hybrid cushioning system, which combines Nike Lunarlon cushioning, Nike Zoom Air and Nike Free-inspired siping, delivers a responsive ride that is soft, firm and flexible where it’s needed most. An advanced traction system on the outsole features hundreds of “nodules” that grip the court and work to provide optimal traction. The flexible midsole and outsole enables the traction system to better engage with the court when the athlete changes direction."

… Mmmkay. It’s comfy and colorful.

It’s wonderful how Nike is trying to present itself as some sort of futurist consumer arthouse. The company likely hopes that its clientele shifts over from sad teenagers to brandy-sipping socialites with a love of the primitive and abstract. Take it down a notch, Nike. You’re selling sneakers, not introducing a new aesthetic model of artistic expression.

In a successful attempt to make both themselves and Kobe Bryant less likeable, Nike also displayed the shoe behind images of things unrelated to basketball or to shoes except in winning spirit. Among the ten symbols that represent “Kobe Bryant’s ruthless precision, tactical brilliance on the hardwood and 10 years of groundbreaking shoes,” are:

A shark jaw
A race car
A mamba arrowhead (What in the dickens is a mamba arrowhead?)

There is no word yet on what the other seven symbols are, but hopefully one of them turns out to be Kwame Brown crying.

(H/T: Nike News)

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